Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Ultimate Guide to The Use of Facebook in Education

There is a growing controversy over the use of Facebook in education.Some argue for its integration and others disfavour it. I believe that the main reason behind this controversy is the lack of solid empirical researches about the overall value of not only Facebook but all other popular social networking in education. There are , however, some researchers ( like Crook and Harrison ,Charnigo, Barnett-Ellis, Hewitt and Forte, Mathews, Mazer and Murphy ) who have written about the potential of social networking in education, yet only few studies have specifically addressed its role in pedagogy.

Facebook has, admittedly, been making many inrads into education over the last few years. Be it for or against its use in education, our students are deeply immersed into this social network. Facebook has become part and parcel of their everyday life. They craft online lives that seamlessly meld with their offline world. Our responsibility as teachers and educators is to help them better leverage this medium and benefit from it educationally and not shun them away from it. Students are very smart and even the one you think is the dumbest in your class will probably embarrass you once you give him a chance online. Students have long made up their minds about Facebook and we can not change it.

However, one of the characteristics of a successful teacher is adaptability. Yes, you need to adapt your teaching methods to your new circumstances and according to your students emerging learning needs. The use of Facebook in education is a huge challenge, but not an invincible one. We can turn it into a great learning tool for our students and this is exactly what this post will help you do.

Here is the outline of the main ideas we developed below :

1- Advantages of Facebook in Education
2- Facebook Tips for Teachers
3- Ways Teachers Can Use Facebook
4- Educational Facebook applications for Students and Teachers
5- Facebook Groups for Teachers and Educators to join
5- Facebook Privacy Issues and how to Work on Them

1- Advantages of the use of Facebook in education :

Here are some of the benefits you may harvest from your effective use of Facebook with your students :

Relaxed, friendly and inviting atmosphere which encourages students participation and engagement

Students feel comfortable learning through Facebook because most of them use it everyday

Facebook can promote collaboration and social interchange between participants

Students get engaged about their learning outside the classroom

2- Facebook tips for teachers :

Here are some important tips that teachers need to keep in mind when using Facebook with their students :

Using Facebook to grow professionally also means that you need to join groups designed specifically for educators and teachers where they share links and materials and talk about educational issues. Here is a list of such groups that you might be interested in joining .

One of the things about Facebook that scares parents as well as teachers is privacy issues. Again ignorance is behind this fear and once we know how to use Facebook properly we can overcome most of these issues. Here are some great resources to help you learn more about privacy issues in Facebook.